India to see 80 per cent literacy rate by 2015: Pallam Raju

New Delhi, July 18: India will achieve 80 percent literacy rate in the next two years, Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju said on Thursday.

Speaking at the inauguration of an international conference on 'Effective, innovative approaches to scale up literacy, reduce gender disparities and create a literate world', Raju said that more than 20 crore people have become literate since the 2001 census of which more than half are women.

"The literacy rate of India is 73 percent at present as per the 2011 census.. to achieve the goal of 80 percent, the HRD ministry is restructuring the entire adult education system in the country with a paradigm shift to lifelong education," he said.

"An appropriate administrative and if required, legislative process will be initiated to integrate formal, non-formal and informal learning and to formally recognize forms of education other than formal," he added.

Stressing on the fact that the government was keen to improve the quality of adult learning, Raju said that a 'core curriculum framework' has been developed and is currently undergoing consultative process.

"Full support will be given to adult education by providing adequate resources including funding, research complemented by knowledge management systems and through other innovative means including use of computer as a medium of instruction," he added.

The conference has been organized by India's National Literacy Mission Authority (NLMA) along with UNESCO and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL).